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Bids for Wilmington High within budget

By Katie Lannan, klannan@lowellsun.com

Updated:
02/08/2013 06:36:22 AM EST

WILMINGTON -- Despite town officials' concerns that delays in the construction process would drive up costs, bids for the new high school fall within the budget approved by the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

Trade and subcontractor bids unveiled at Thursday night's High School Building Committee meeting added up to $66,998,650. Included in the total are alternate design features of an orchestra pit and polished ground-face concrete block, a type of masonry committee members said would be more durable.

"There's a lot of projects out there that are over budget, so overall this is pretty fantastic news," said project manager Bill Cunniff of Joslin, Lesser and Associates.

To come in under the MSBA budget of $67,536,513, the committee decided against including a screen that would shield the air-conditioning unit on the building's roof.

The committee ruled out the screen because it would have brought the price tag to $67,661,054, more than $124,000 over the approved amount.

"It's out of the picture for now, but that's not to say it couldn't be revisited," Cunniff said. "It's the type of item that could be added in later in the project."

Budget estimates reviewed by the committee in September, when the plans were considered 90 percent complete, gave a cost of $68,268,597, with the roof screen and all other alternate features.

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Cunniff said while some bids, including those for heating and cooling systems, came in below estimates, others were over. Bids for the polished concrete blocks, he said, were almost $200,000 over what had been planned.

At a selectmen's meeting last month, board Chairman Mike Newhouse, who also sits on the High School Building Committee, projected construction delays brought on by a series of environmental appeals would add $1,765,000 to the cost.

Resident Kevin MacDonald, a previous high-school appellant, asked the building committee Thursday where that claim came from, since the bids were within budget.

"I'm thinking it's just fabricated or rhetoric," he said.

In response, Superintendent of Schools Joanne Benton said that the bids had not been completed.

"If we had not had a delay of a year, we probably would be saving the town $1.7 million," Benton said. "I can tell you that from the numbers we reviewed earlier this evening."

Construction begins next week, with the installation of temporary fencing around the high school gymnasium. Demolition of the gym will start the following week.

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